Nigerian arrested in Ghana for alleged $7.5m fraud in US

Ghanaian security agents on Thursday arrested a Nigerian identified as Olusegun Samson Adejorin for an alleged $7.5 million fraud case in the United States.

The arrest of the Nigerian carried out in collaboration with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raised questions about transnational crime networks and the increasing sophistication of cybercrime.

In a statement issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Adejorin was accused of participating in a complex scheme involving stolen credit card information and money laundering.

The alleged scam targeted individuals in the US who unknowingly had their financial data compromised.

The data was then used to generate fraudulent credit cards and extract funds, with one Ifeyinwa Ezenwanne suspected to be a key player in the scam.

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The statement read: “According to the eight-count indictment, between June and August 2020, Adejorin perpetrated a scheme to defraud Victim 1, a charitable organisation located in North Bethesda, Maryland, and Victim 2, a charitable organisation located in New York, New York by gaining access to employee email accounts and impersonating employees to induce financial transactions.

“The indictment alleges that Adejorin posed as an employee of Victim 2 to request withdrawals of Victim 2’s funds from Victim 1, a charitable organisation that provided investment services to Victim 2. Withdrawals over $10,000 required approval from at least one of several individuals authorised by Victim 1.

“According to the indictment, Adejorin fraudulently obtained the credentials of employees at Victim 1 and Victim 2 and posed as those employees to send emails from their accounts, including emails making fraudulent requests for the withdrawal of investment funds.

“If convicted, Adejorin faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of five counts of wire fraud; a maximum of five years in prison for unauthorised access to a protected computer; and a mandatory sentence of two years in federal prison, consecutive to any other sentence imposed for each of the two counts of aggravated identity theft.”

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